


Mistle-what?!

by LailaLiquorice



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, a teeny weeny bit of angst, holtzbert secret santa gift
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 03:06:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9157411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LailaLiquorice/pseuds/LailaLiquorice
Summary: Abby suggests an alternative to the traditional mistletoe. Erin isn't quite sure what to think.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ljthebard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ljthebard/gifts).



> This is for my Holtzbert Secret Santa, and I'm sorry I kept you waiting for so long! I hope this is worth it :)

 

Erin’s first thought when she wandered downstairs at 9am was that she was hallucinating. Maybe it was the lack of sleep she’d got; she’d been woken several times by crashes coming from the lab. Maybe the drink she’d had at their Christmas party last night had gone to her head. Maybe she was coming down with the flu.

She kept thinking up excuses for another minute or so before accepting that there really was the top giant-sized Christmas tree poking through the hole in the floor where the fireman’s pole was.

“D’ya like it?” Holtzmann said, emerging from the lab. “Abby and I decided that the Firehouse wasn’t nearly Christmassy enough, so we added a few extra bits and pieces.”

Erin’s answer was interrupted by Patty’s shout of “Who’s idea was it to bring a forest in here? Where’d you even find a tree that big at midnight on Christmas Eve? Man, if this is what happens when Abby and Holtzy are tipsy then I’m never leaving them alone again.”

Erin had to agree with her; she and Patty had turned in from the party early, leaving Abby and Holtzmann alone in the Firehouse.

“It’s not a single tree, it’s about five artificial ones. Holtzmann and I stuck the branches to the pole.”Abby said, emerging from the kitchen and handing Erin a cup of coffee.

“You stuck the branches to the pole.” Patty repeated.

Holtzmann nodded with a million-watt grin. “Nothing a little duct tape won’t stick.”

“And that’s not all,” Abby said, beckoning them all towards the nearest door. Erin looked up, her brain exploding into several different trains of thought upon seeing the mistletoe taped above the doorway.

“Now this might look like your regular mistletoe, but we’re putting a twist on the tradition since Abby’s not into all that smooch-smoochy stuff.” Holtzmann announced, with Abby nodding firmly. Erin understood; she’d known Abby was aroace almost as long as she’d known Abby. “So may we present to you: Mistlefoe.”

Abby and Holtzmann were grinning like children. Erin and Patty simple exchanged a look of exasperation before Patty nodded at them to continue.

“So rather than kissing, whenever you meet someone under the mistlefoe you have to fight them.”

Patty shook her head. “Oh hell no. This is a bad idea. Abby could literally deck anyone and Holtzy has the equipment ready to liquefy us. Someone’s gonna get murdered.”

Abby laughed mischievously, cracking her knuckles, before explaining “It doesn’t have to be a fistfight; it can be a debate, or a dance battle. Anything that involves fighting your partner.”

“So no liquification.” Patty said, fixing Holtzmann with a firm stare.

“Alriiiiight.”

“Don’t do that.”

 “What about Kevin, is he playing?” Erin asked.

Abby shook her head “We thought that might be a bit dangerous-“

“More dangerous then what Holtzy could use to kill us all?” Patty pointed out, one eyebrow raised.

“Yes. He might not hurt a fly on purpose but if he gets the wrong idea then about fighting someone then-“ Holtzmann mimed punching herself in the nose, complete with an explosion side effect that made Erin giggle.

Abby clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention again. “So you all know the rules, and you’ve got from now until tomorrow morning to try and fight as many people as possible. Any questions?”

Erin and Patty exchanged a glance before they both shook their heads. “I’m still afraid of what Holtzy might do. Her dance battles usually ended with something on fire.” Patty muttered.

Holtzmann grinned. “Well you won’t have to worry for a few hours because I’m off to bed. Haven’t slept in over 24 hours. Ciao!”

* * *

Erin wasn’t really sure how she felt about the whole idea.

On one hand it saved her the embarrassment if Holtzmann didn’t want to kiss her, and since Erin didn’t think her anxiety would be able to handle the rejection that was definitely a good thing. Despite Abby’s not-so-subtle prompting that Holtzmann liked her, Erin wasn’t nearly as convinced. Flirting was in Holtzmann’s nature. There was nothing special about Erin.

 But on the other hand, there was the unavoidable fact that Erin did want to kiss Holtzmann. Badly. Quite possible since the very first _‘Come here often’_.

Erin had known she wasn’t quite as straight as she wanted to be since her high school days. But she hadn’t even considered it- hadn’t even allowed herself to consider it. She’d dismissed it as just another way in that she wasn’t normal enough, and jumped into a relationship with the first man who was willing to give her a second glance. All in a desperate bid to be normal. And, for a time, that had been enough.

The past few months had changed her though. Erin had become Erin again, in all her ghost-hunting, finger-gunning, slime-attracting glory, rather than the plain and plaid academic she’d forced herself to be while at Columbia. And that meant that forcing herself to ignore any attraction to women had stopped working too, from about the moment she had first set eyes on Holtzmann. The ‘Kevin Phase’, as Abby liked to call those first few weeks, had been a last resort attempt to convince herself that it was Kevin causing her mind to short-circuit rather than Holtzmann. Suffice to say, that hadn’t lasted long.

So now Erin had until Holtzmann woke up (which would either be 2 or 12 hours, there was no inbetween with her) to decide what she wanted. Curse Abby and her drink-induced ideas.

* * *

The first fight was between Patty and Abby, and it was one of the most intense debates Erin had ever witnessed.

“Ha!” Abby burst out, making Erin jump from where she was a few paces behind.

“Oh hell no. Can’t I fight Erin instead?” Patty complained, gesturing to Erin, “she’s practically under here too.”

Abby shook her head, grinning childishly. “It’s you and me, Patty. How are we battling today?”

Patty sighed. “Let’s debate, then I might stand half a chance. Erin, baby, if I die today then please make sure I have a nice funeral.”

Abby ended up winning, purely because she didn’t give Patty any time to speak. Her smug look at winning the first mistlefoe battle lasted for the rest of the day.

* * *

Erin managed to fight Abby twice and Patty once over the course of the day.

She was challenged by Abby first, and the resultant dance-off lasted for a full 10 minutes and involved a lot of breakdancing (or as Patty liked to call it, sweeping the floor with their turtlenecks). It eventually ended when they both crashed from exhaustion and Patty forced them to call it a truce.

Her fight with Patty lasted even longer. Erin wasn’t sure how they ended up sat on the sofa playing Pokémon for over an hour, suddenly glad that she had decided to hang onto her old games rather than throw them out. Patty ended up winning but Erin still had a lot of fun, despite Abby yelling “NERDS!” at them every time she walked past.

Patty refused to let them have a danceoff rematch when Erin met Abby under the mistlefoe for the second time, but a couple of wrapping paper tubes left over from wrapping Christmas presents provided them with a good alternative. What resulted was a very crude fencing match using the cardboard tubes. It ended when Erin accidentally hit Abby in the face which caught her by surprise enough to make her fall over backwards into an empty storage box and lose her glasses in the process. Abby was insistent that it was an unfair win since the placement of the box had caused her to fall over, but Patty stepped in as referee and gave Erin the win.

* * *

“Do you think Holtzy has gone into hibernation?”

It was a good question, Erin thought, as she mindlessly stirred her coffee late that evening. It wasn’t unusual for Holtzmann to sleep for 12 hours or more after being awake for too long, but Erin had assumed that, being so close to Christmas, she would have been too excited to sleep for long.

Abby shrugged. “She’s had a lot of short nights recently. That much lack of sleep has got to catch up to you in the end.”

Nodding in agreement, Patty stood up. “Well as much as I was kinda looking forward to battling our tiny scientist, I gotta go to bed. She’s gonna be climbing the walls tomorrow.”

“That’s probably a good idea. Night Patty.” Abby said. She waited until Patty had gone upstairs, before resting a hand on Erin’s knee. “Alright. What’s up?”

Erin hummed in response, looking up to see Abby’s concerned face. She set her cup down on the coffee table before saying in a small voice “I wanted to meet Holtzmann under the mistletoe.” Suddenly realising what she’d said, she quickly added “I meant the mistlefoe.”

“No you didn’t,” stated Abby, not unkindly in the slightest. “Come on, you can be honest with me. I know you like her, and I know she likes you too. The reason why she’s gone beyond flirting is because she’d never want to make you uncomfortable. She cares about you too much. She’s surprisingly intuitive under all that eccentricness.”

Erin shrugged helplessly. “Do you really think she would?”

Abby smiled. “I know she would.”

Footsteps creaking on the third floor interrupted them, and Erin’s heart skipped a beat when she saw the light on in Holtzmann’s bedroom.

“You’ll know what to do.” Abby said, giving Erin one last encouraging look before leaving her alone on the sofa. Erin watched as Abby went up the stairs before she stood and moved closer to the dreaded doorway, snippets of conversation floating down from above as she passed by the staircase.

“Hey Holtzmann. Sleep well?”

“Hi Abs. Pretty good thanks. Is Erin still up?”

“Yeah she’s still downstairs.”

“Alright. See ya tomorrow.”

“Night Holtz.”

Erin’s heart was thumping in her chest as she heard Holtzmann walking down the stairs, humming a Christmas tune as she did. The sight of her with her hair unpinned and wearing only a vest top with her sweatpants only added to the butterflies in Erin’s stomach. She stopped when she saw Erin hovering near the doorway and smiled, a softer smile than the blinding grin she had worn that morning. “Has the mistlefoe caused much mayhem?” she asked.

“Um, yes. Abby and I had a danceoff and a swordfight using cardboard tubes, Patty and Abby argued for 15 minutes, and Patty and I had a pokemon battle.” Erin said, just about managing to keep the nervous stammer from her voice.

“Sounds like fun. I’m sorry I slept through it.”

The distance between them couldn’t have been more than a few feet, but it felt more like a hundred miles. Remembering what Abby had said about Holtzmann not wanting to make the first move, Erin took both a literal and metaphorical step forward when she said “Well you could always do it with me.”

Holtzmann’s eyes widened for just a second, she too taking a step closer. “You know, despite this being my idea, I’ve always preferred old traditions to new ones. What do you think?”

Erin’s breath hitched just slightly. She was convinced Holtzmann could hear her heartbeat. “I think so too,” she softly, hardly daring to believe it was real.

They were inches apart now. After a moment’s silence where they simply looked at each other, Holtzmann cleared her throat awkwardly. “Erin?”

“Yes?”

“Can I kiss you?”

Erin’s voice had deserted her, so she merely nodded as an answer.

Holtzmann moved forward and closed the gap between them, pressing her lips against Erin’s almost painstakingly gently. They were still for a moment, Erin half expecting Holtzmann to pull away, but then there were hands resting on the back of her neck and a thumb caressing her cheek. All of Erin’s misgivings deserted her as she leaned into Holtzmann’s touch, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to pull her closer and burying the other hand in her loose curls.

A thousand seconds later they parted. Erin felt like all the breath had been sucked out of her lungs. Holtzmann was watching her with a concerned gaze, her hands lingering on Erin’s arms. “What that ok?” she asked tentatively.

“Holtz, that was better than ok.” Erin said, her voice barely louder than a whisper. She had kissed people before, but never anyone who had been quite so gentle in every movement, quite so conscious of her and what she wanted.

“Glad to hear that I don’t disappoint,” Holtz said with a wink. She paused for a moment before admitting with a sheepish grin “I should probably confess that I’ve been wanting to kiss you for quite some time now.”

Erin hesitated, before nodding. “So have I.”

“I’m sorry if I made you think I wasn’t interested. But I could tell you weren’t sure, and I didn’t want to put any pressure on you. I figured that you’d work it out in the end.” Holtzmann continued, a softness to her words that Erin had only caught a glimpse of once before in the bar after the Fourth Cataclysm.

“Well you were right,” Erin said simply.

A smile played about the corner of Holtz’s lips, and suddenly they were both laughing together.

The sound of a firework going off in the distance caught Erin’s attention, and they both looked towards the clock to see that it had just gone midnight.

 “Merry Christmas Erin.”

“Merry Christmas Holtz.”

As they leaned in for a second kiss, Erin knew that it was going to be her favourite Christmas ever.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this kind of fulfills what you were hoping for! AUs aren't my forte so I went with the suggestion of a first time instead, but this proved hard since I've never ever written a kiss before- not gonna lie, I watched the Sanvers kiss from the last Supergirl episode about five times xD. Anyway, I hope you had a good holiday!


End file.
